Skip to main content

The Most Beautiful Velvet Cape

When my Grandma Millie was a little girl she was kind of spoiled.  She was the surprise baby at the end and all her siblings were quite a bit older than her, kind of like our little spoiled Spike.  Except her family called her "Toots".

Because of the age gap she played on her own a lot as a young kid.  She had cool toys like a wicker doll stroller and a play washing machine.  And one Christmas, her brother gave her a beautiful "grown up girl" doll.  

My grandma lived with her parents on a sheep ranch.  They sold the wool to make long underwear for the soldiers during World War II.  The ranch was pretty far away from town, and even the "country school" was 15 miles away.  Most of the other kids in the area would live with families closer to the school, but my great grandparents didn't want to be away from their little Toots so they rented a small house near the school for her and my great grandmother to stay during the week.

One of the girls staying at the house next door had a pretty "grown up doll" too.  They would play dolls together almost every day after school.  Except the girl next door's doll had a fancy velvet cape.  And my grandma wanted her doll to have a fancy cape too.  This was during a world war, and her family lived on a modest budget, so it's not like velvet was just....around.  But she was just a little seven year old girl who really really wanted a doll cape.

And being the well-loved child that she was, she got that cape.

Somehow my great grandmother found a scrap of velvet to make a fancy doll cape just to please her Toots.  My grandma isn't sure how she managed to do it, but she was thrilled to have a doll cape just like her friend.

And to this day, whenever my grandma sees a cape, or a scrap of velvet, she remembers how the velvet doll cape her mom made her was the most beautiful thing she has ever seen.

So, the moral of this story is: You can give your age gap babies really fun nicknames and then spoil them as much as you want, and they'll turn out to be pretty amazing anyway.



This story is about my grandma Mildred (Allen) Ray.  I hope to share more family history stories on a regular basis....but since I have a hard time even posting ANYTHING regularly, don't hold your breath.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

hair loss and mourning

I like Monkey's hair long.  I tried to grow out Opie's hair when he was younger, but he has always had a tremendously large head, and he also has very thick wavy hair.  You pair those two together, throw in some long locks, and you've got yourself a genuinely bonified giant-head child.  So I've learned my lesson: keep Opie's hair short. But Monkey's hair?  It's so soft, and straight (our only straight-haired child) and super super cute when it's long.  SUPER CUTE.  (Agree with me - it's my blog.)  But not many people liked the whole long hair thing.  I kept having to threaten various family members with things like, "If I come back to find him with short hair I will DISOWN you, run away with my kids and you will never hear from us again.  EVER."  (Husband was particularly sensitive to this threat.) However, I did say that once random strangers started referring to him as a girl, I would consider cutting it.  And even though ...

The Barrel giveaway : Sea and Asters

 As mentioned in this month's issue of The Barrel I'm giving away something from Sea and Asters ! These are the coolest plants.  EVER.  They're low maintenance and look mega-awesome.  I'm totally getting one for myself....as soon as I decide which ONE it is that I love.  (Seeing as they're all uber-mega-awesome, I'm having a hard time deciding on a favorite.) The winner of this giveaway will receive a Hanging Globe Terrarium (worth $25) from Sea and Aster's etsy shop. This giveaway is open to US residents only.  All giveaways associated with The Barrel end on March 15th at 11:59 PM MT. Here's how to enter: 1- For ONE entry: visit Sea and Aster's Etsy shop then leave a comment on this post about which is your favorite product. 2- For another ONE entry you can "heart" Sea and Aster's Etsy shop . (Leave a separate comment telling me that you "hearted" them.) 3- For ONE more entry you can subscribe to The Barrel...

yeeeeeeee ha

We took the kids to a rodeo today.  In my mind I knew I wanted to take them for the experience, but also I was thinking:  rodeo=country western torture. I've been to a few rodeos before.  The small town next to the small town where I grew up had one every summer.  It was always hot and super dusty, and everyone got to sit on rickety-ish old stadium benches that didn't have backs.  Also, you had to make sure you didn't wear flip flops, because they could fall under the benches and get trampled by the waiting bulls.  (Seriously, there were bulls below us once - I was like 9, it scared the poop out of me, I thought my shoes were goners.) But the rodeo today?  SUPER AWESOME.  I would bet money that I had a better time than my kids did.  (And they didn't even play that much country music, which is great, because I think that would have ruined the whole thing for me.) First of all, it was indoors.  And at noon.  And had special fam...